videogamehistoryfandomcom-20200215-history
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is the first expansion for Dragon Age: Origins. It was released for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 18 in Europe and March 19 in the UK. It was released in the US on March 16th.Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening - Valenna Trailer - New character introduced and will have both retail and download editions.Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Q&A - PC feature - at IGN However in the UK the PS3 version will not be available at retail and will instead only be available via the Playstation network. The writing team on Awakening consists of David Gaider, Sheryl Chee, and Ferret A. Baudoin.Ferret A. Baudoin BioWare Forums Overview The events of Awakening begin six months after the conclusion of Dragon Age: Origins. The player takes on the role of a Grey Warden commander (who is either an imported character from Origins or an Orlesian Warden). The Orlesian Warden is treated differently because of Orlais' history with Ferelden and because an (imported) Warden will have killed an achdemon single handedly. While rebuilding the Grey Wardens and establishing Vigil's Keep, a fortress given to the Grey Wardens at the end of Origins, as a new base of operations, the Warden is faced with a new challenge. It is revealed that despite the defeat of the archdemon, the darkspawn have not returned underground and a new variety of sapient, speaking darkspawn are discovered. Two entities, named The Architect and The Mother, appear to be involved and the Warden may have to deal with them. Once this mission is complete, the world will have changed dramatically. ''The Calling'' Characters Appearing in Awakening *The Architect is a mysterious darkspawn that can talk and does not feel the calling; he was the main antagonist from Dragon Age: The Calling. *Utha is one of the Grey Wardens that went into the Deep Roads to find an ex-Grey Warden commander and has a run-in with the Architect. Origins Characters Appearing in Awakening *Herren and Wade will return to sell new goods. Wade will make you special stuff if you find "fantastical" materials such as Eldest Dragonbone, Heartwood and Golem Shell. After finding such materials though, Wade will give you a list of things he further needs to construct the special items.Awakening FAQ *Alistair, Wynne, Loghain, and Anora can make an appearance depending on player choices in Origins. Wynne is a sidequest-giver found in Amaranthine near the chantry. Awakening FAQ *Oghren is a returning party member from Dragon Age: Origins (He will start at 0 approval regardless of your relationship with him in Origins; in addition, if the character has given him gifts in Origins, gifts given to him in Awakening continue to receive diminishing returns in approval) Frequently Asked Questions New Companions *Anders is a human mage who has escaped the Circle of Magi seven times, but always seems to get caught. The woman Templar in the trailer claims he is a murderer and is not to be trusted. The nature of how he is a "murderer" is currently unknown. It may be that she blames him for the death of the Templars that were guarding him at Vigil's Keep when the Darkspawn attacked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqYLe3V5usc&feature=sub *Velanna is an elven mage of rather unknown and questionable origin, as seen in her very short trailer. She is rather aggressive and has the ability to animate the trees (which are similar to sylvans). According to the trailer, she is hunting the merchants who took her sister, and attacks the warden for killing her "Friends" (meaning some Dalish elves she is traveling with). Who her sister is and why they took her is unknown. She is located in the Wending Woods. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVA-4GgfxMM *Sigrun sig-grun is a dwarven rogue who is a member of the Legion of the Dead. She fought the darkspawn with her group in the Deep Roads, and she is the last survivor. Also, she thinks that something odd is happening in the fortress of Kal'Hirol. http://g4tv.com/videos/44279/Exclusive_Dragon_Age_Origins__Awakening_Sigrun_Trailer/ *Mhairi mai-ree is an ex-army sword & shield female human warrior. She admires the two Wardens who defeated the Archdemon "single-handedly" and jumped at the opportunity to help rebuild the order. Mhairi is a Grey Warden prospect who has not taken the Joining. *Nathaniel Howe is a rogue and the son of Arl Rendon Howe. He is found in the Vigil's dungeon. http://www.primagames.com/guides/display.php?isbn=9780307468352&tab=details#tabs *Justice is a warrior and a noble spirit from the Fade, bound to the body of a dead Grey Warden. He is situated in the Blackmarsh.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtTVDkH9RLo New Locations *Amaranthine: Rendon Howe's previous property estate, with lots of fishing going on. *Blackmarsh: Former bustling village abandoned into a gloomy, desolate marsh. The Veil is thin and torn here. *Kal'Hirol: The dwarven fortress long known as a center of learning for the smith caste. *Knotwood Hills: An area of inhospitable and barren hills to the west of Amaranthine. *Vigil's Keep: An ancient fortress in Amaranthine. Base of operations for the Grey Wardens. *Wending Woods: Forest area divided by Pilgrim's Path, leading to Amaranthine. *Dragon Bone Wastes: Wasteland where dragons go to die and the Tevinter Imperium attempts to harvest greater power from their remains. The area of Drake's Fall lies here. New Creatures *The Architect *The Children *The Disciples *Queen of the Blackmarsh *The Withered *The First *The Lost *The Herald *The Mother *Baroness New Specializations New Spells Mage Battlemage Keeper New Talents Rogue Legionnaire Scout Shadow Warrior Guardian Spirit Warrior Weapon and Shield Dual-wielding Weapons Two-handed Weapons Archery New Skills *Runecrafting *Vitality *Clarity Random Encounters Random Encounters Items New Quests Main Plot Quests *The Awakening (Quest) *The Righteous Path *Last of the Legion *Shadows of the Blackmarsh *The Assault on Amaranthine *The Siege of Vigil's Keep *Depths of Depravity Differences Between Origins and Awakening * Characters sometimes approve/disapprove of actions even when they are not present. (Unsure if this is a bug) * There will be no romance options in Awakening. Point 1.8 on the Awakening FAQ * There are 2 new tiers of material. Heavy Armor gains White Steel (Tier 8) and Volcanic Aurum (Tier 9), Light Armor gains Dragonwing (Tier 8) and High Dragon (Tier 9), and Wood gains Vhenadahl (Tier 8) and Ancestral Heartwood (Tier 9). * You will be able to craft your own runes and use them on armor. Destructoid preview * You will have the ability to re-spec your character without losing plot decisions made in Origins through an unlimited amount of Manual of Focus tomes, sold for 6 each. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Q&A - PC feature - at IGN *Most promotional and DLC items will not transfer into Awakening. Point 2.5 on the Awakening FAQ However, items received during Return to Ostagar and the Memory Band will transfer. Awakening Q&A *Characters approvals from The Origins will not be translated into The Awakening. Everyone (including Oghren) will start at 0 approval. (ref: I received Awakening today @ Bioware forums) *The Origins characters who used Character Respecialization Mod can be imported to The Awakening without any issues. *Oghren will meet you with his new Legion of the Dead gear, set with a magical weapon (be sure to strip him out prior to The Awakening) *Inside the Throne Room in Vigil's Keep ( to the right after entering the room) there is a personal chest where you can store all of your items. *You level up and gain money at a much faster rate in Awakening compared to Origins * A higher level cap of 35. * All characters The Warden can recruit can be put through The Joining and made Wardens. Importing an Origins Warden versus creating an Orlesian Warden *People of Amaranthine will treat a Ferelden Warden with respect, as opposed to suspicion towards an Orlesian Warden. *An imported Warden appears to tier all companions to his/her level also. *An imported Warden will only be imported with the weapons and armor that the Warden had equipped with when imported, but will have all unassigned accesories and all basic items. Your companions equipment will be lost unless you unequip them and keep them as unassign accesories in your inventory. *New Wardens do not benefit from the stat or talent gains garnered from Lost in Dreams or increases from tomes Achievements *'Awakening' Completed Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening *'The Enduring Vigil' Acquired all upgrades for Vigil's Keep. *'Commander of the Grey' Reach level 30. Secret Achievements *'Savior of Kal'Hirol - 30G' Destroyed the broodmothers in Kal'Hirol. *'Blind Vengeance - 30G' Escaped the silverite mines. *'Pride Before The Fall - 30G' Defeated the baroness. *'Amaranthine's Last Hope - 25G' Saved the city of Amaranthine. *'Keeper of the Vigil - 25G' Saved Vigil's Keep. }} Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening Bugs/Glitches *(PS3/360) Able to access the Silverite Mine before talking to Velanna. See Silverite Mine page for details. *Main character's equipment may disappear during the Silverite Mine portion of the game, details on that page. *Velanna may not be allowed to undergo the Joining without improvisation unless the three main quests are done in a particular order. See Velanna's Joining. *Sigrun may not be allowed to undergo the Joining without improvisation unless the three main quests are done in a particular order. See Sigrun's Joining. *(PC) Awakening introduces some old console bugs not present in the PC version of Origins, allowing the player to assign Tactics to summoned creatures by clicking on the '# new tactics slots have been added' message on summon. In addition, the Ranger's Wolf/Blight Wolf summon hides 3/4 skills, mostly taken from Dog's repertoire, normally inaccessible to the player. Via the tactics menu, you can make the Wolf auto-cast those hidden abilities. *(360/PC) Possible to have Sigrun's approval start out at +100. This can be done by giving her the Spyglass (other gifts can produce the same results) immediately upon rescuing her outside of Kal'Hirol. Doing so will begin the cut scene and add +100 approval. *(PC/360) When initially equipping a shield, it will appear on the avatar normally. However, whenever you switch between primary and secondary weapon sets, the shield will disappear. It still shows as equipped in the inventory, but does not appear on the avatar's back in game. In battle, the character motions as if pulling out the shield, but it's not there. If you return to the inventory screen and re-equip the shield, it will show again. However, the defense stats seem to be the same regardless of whether or not the shield is visible. Further investigation suggests this happens only after using a Manual of Focus. To avoid the bug, un-equip ALL items before using the manual. *Accepting the quest Law and Order in Amaranthine will eliminate your ability to initiate Sigrun's personal quest. A dwarven woman standing at the bottom of the steps leading up to the tavern will no longer spawn if this quest has been accepted. *(360/PS3/PC) The gloves, breastplate, and boots of the Sentinel armor set will look like the Warden Commander armor on a human character if your DA:O game had the Warden's Keep DLC installed. *The Vigilance sword, acquired from the Worked to the Bone quest given to you by Wade, will look like the Starfang sword from DA:O if your game had the Warden's Keep DLC installed. *(PS3) When collecting the 4 pieces of the Sentinel Armor during Shadows of the Blackmarsh, you must obtain all pieces before leaving. If you exit the area, there is a chance that the pieces may be replaced with a duplicate of one of the items already in your inventory. *(PS3/PC) If the player is using an imported Warden, many of the Codex pages collected during Origins will have been removed. The removed pages appear as empty slots in the log rather than being erased. *In the quest Smuggler's Run in Amaranthine (given by Shady Character) you are asked to speak to the innkeeper at the local tavern to get him to allow smuggling to continue. When you return you will be rewarded and invited down into the passage inside the house adjacent to him. Inside you will deal with some thieves and after you have cleared them out the Master Smuggler will show up. When you speak to him he will give you a gift of 15 gold and 500 experience points and offer you another job. Decline his offer and initiate dialogue again. He will once more reward you with 15 gold and 500 experience points. This can be repeated as much as you desire. *When using an imported character, none of the DLC content items will be transferred. However, if you have these items equipped on your character, even though the items themselves disappear, their Statistics/Resistances modifications will be merged into the character's base attributes. * The Manual of Focus will only recognize a maximum of 99 attribute points. If your character has more than 99 points, the additional points will be lost upon using the Manual. This is not true for all PS3 system copies. *(PC) Nathaniel is able to be equipped with high level weapons and armor as it seems that the calculations use your dexterity score rather than the actual stat required. *(PC) A masterpiece silverite rune (created using runecrafting) became an armor rune instead of a weapon rune. *(PC) If you use Esc to stop the ending, then you read the epilogue, you get an unknown bug causing the "killing the Mother" cutscene to play infinitely after the credits. Category:Games